Lamp shades do more than attenuate or adjust light emanating from a light source. Lamp shades provide a surface to display art. Decorative lamp shades are typically made from fabrics, plastics, paper, or glass, an example being a lamp shade being made from a canvas material with adhesives and a plastic backing with images painted on the canvas, or a stain glass lamp shade made in many colors and shapes. However, paper and thin flexible plastics are not durable enough materials for accepting industrial UV-LED curable inks or solvent based inks from digital printers that print images on such substrates to further shape into lamp shades.
The present invention uses translucent or transparent substrates as printing materials for custom printed lamp shades, non-limiting examples being backlit film or acrylic glass respectively, where end caps are used to eventually fashion either material into a custom printed lamp shade. Either material is a good substrate for accepting digital images from printers that apply UV-LED curable inks or solvent based inks. The degree of light transmission of acrylic glass or backlit film is important because if the material is too opaque, then the printed image will appear dull and the colors of the digitally printed images will lose their vibrancy when illuminated. Light from incandescent bulbs or fluorescent tubes that emanate from a lamp should be highly diffused as it passes through either substrate or the illumination of the lamp shade and digitally printed image will not be uniform.
PMMA has a basic chemical structure as follows.
Commercial PMMA is sold as copolymerized products of acrylic acid, which includes both modified and unmodified acrylics. Trade names for acrylic glass may include without limitation Plexiglas®, ACRYLITE®, Lucite®, Perspex®, Altuglas®, Setapan®, Setacryl®, Lucryl®, Deglas®, Friacryl®, Hesa-Glas®, Limacryl®, Resarit®, Satin Glass®, Setasand®, or Setaletter®. Commercial acrylic glass is typically a transparent thermoplastic often used in sheet form as a lightweight or shatter-resistant alternative to traditional glass and is commonly prepared by copolymerizing a small amount of a co-monomer with methyl-methacrylate in order to inhibit depolymerization.
Backlit film is a polyester type material used in illuminated signage displays, where prints are viewed with a light source behind it. The effect requires the film, a digital printed image on such material, and a lightbox for illumination. Materials for backlit films are mostly flexible and create a compelling visual light effect. Backlit is typically made from specialty vinyl and laminate materials, including but not limited to, synthetic paper (polyolefine type, polystylene type, etc.); natural fiber paper such as cellulose fiber paper (wood-free paper, coated paper, latex impregnated paper, etc.); synthetic resin sheet or film (polyolefine, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene-terephtharate, polystylene, polymethacrylate, polycarbonate, etc.). Examples of the resin to be used for the receiving layer may include polyester, polyacrylate, polycarbonate, polyvinyl acetate, styrene-acrylate resin, vinyl tolueneacrylate resin, polyurethane, polyamide, urea resin, polycaprolactone, styrene-maleic anhydride resin, polyvinyl chloride, polyacrylonitrile, etc. and mixtures, copolymers of these resins, and others.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,580,922 to A. Scherer discloses a lamp shade and a method for making the same.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,115 to Pickens, J., et al. discloses a translucent lamp shade having a tube with flanges that extend radially inward, a lens, and mounting brackets to attach the lamp to a ceiling. The outer portion of the tube is joined with a self decorative adhesive paper.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 20080130297 as filed by Kowloon, G. H. discloses a lamp shade assembly having upper and lower rings that are clipped to the same.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 20090225553 as filed by Wu, W. discloses a lamp shade having a top and bottom frame, a covering, and hook and loop materials to secure the covering to the frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,347,593 to Swanson, D. discloses a Giclee printed lamp shade and a method for making the same.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 20020112386 as filed by Thomas, A. discloses a lamp shade being styrene that is capable of retaining and illuminating a printed image on a translucent film preferably being Duratrans photographic film.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 20160097934 as filed by Harris, H. discloses an apparatus and method of manufacture for a layered artwork.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,121,572 to Lewis, J. D., et al. discloses a lamp shade and frame assembly that uses a cover material that includes an resilient opaque film.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,233 to Fye, M. E. discloses a method for making multicolored backlit materials.
None of the cited art discloses a custom printed lamp shade having at least one end cap capable of shaping various printing substrates into lamp shade walls, where the printing substrates pass light and have digitally printed images that are illuminated by a light source, and where the end cap has a center aperture that has a diameter sized to accepted a shade rest of lamp fitter or a diameter sized to accept a lamp socket. Therefore, there is a need for the present invention.